1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to printing systems. Specifically, the present invention relates to systems and methods for facilitating remote printing via one or more devices, such as Internet appliances, and one or more printers connected to a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
Remote printing systems and methods are employed in various demanding applications including office computer network and home Internet appliance printing applications. Such applications often demand memory-efficient and versatile printing systems and software that can effectively print from plural network devices.
In an exemplary network-printing environment, one or more network devices, such as computers, hand-held devices, Internet appliances, and printers intercommunicate via a wireless and/or landline network. Devices connected to the network often print via one or more printers connected to the network. To print to a desired printer via a network device, the network device must run printer driver software specific to that desired printer. A document to be printed is sent to the desired printer, i.e., pushed via the driver software running on the network device. If other devices are currently printing to the same printer, the current print job is typically placed in a queue until previously pushed jobs are printed. If the desired printer is offline or malfunctioning, the user may waste time printing to the printer.
In a conventional network-printing environment, a device that prints to several different types of printers must have installed printer drivers for each type of printer. The printer drivers are often bulky software packages that occupy significant device memory. Consequently, some devices may not have sufficient memory to enable printing to various types of printers without first removing other software from memory to accommodate the additional printer driver(s). This is particularly problematic in hand-held devices and Internet appliances, where available memory is often severely limited.
To overcome driver storage issues, companies such as Lexmark, NEC, and Peerless Technology, have developed various remote Internet based printing systems. In these systems, a user employing a device with a document to print browses to a printer interface website or other service via the device. The user then pushes, i.e., transfers the desired document to the printer interface website or directly to a selected printer via the device. Translation of the document into appropriate printer control commands is performed via drivers running on the printer interface website or running directly on the printer. The user typically must know the printer type, the electronic address of the printer interface website or service, the name of the website or service, and/or the name of the desired printer. Unfortunately, users often lack this information, and obtaining it may be undesirably time consuming. This is particularly problematic when traveling, where users may lack information about the local network printers.
Hence, a need exists in the art for an efficient system and method that enables devices connected to a network to print to various types of printers without requiring installation of several different bulky printer drivers on each device for each type of printer being employed. There exists a further need for a system and method that enables a user to efficiently obtain information about printers on a given network, such as whether the printers are available to print.